It is not often these days that one associates political courage with a federal minister.

On Stephen Harper’s watch, ministerial accountability is not in fashion; if the Conservative cabinet had to vote for a mascot, one might suggest a trained seal.

Among Harper’s cast of mostly docile performers, few have better perfected the art of surfacing to flap their flippers at the call of their media-trainers than the four Quebecers whose survival in the last election earned them a place at the cabinet table.

Their performance does more to illustrate the Quebec vacuum that is at the heart of this federal government than to alleviate it.

In this vacuum, it is no longer an overstatement to say that Heritage Minister James Moore — even as he hails from British Columbia — has become Harper’s de facto Montreal minister and a central go-to Quebec watcher.

Moore was appointed to the heritage portfolio shortly after the 2008 election.

Culture was front and centre in that campaign in Quebec. The government’s clumsy handling of the issue had just cost the Conservatives a governing majority.

From that episode, Harper apparently drew a number of lessons. One was that culture, because it is so inextricably linked to identity, is the third rail of Quebec politics.

Another was that the coterie of Quebec Conservatives who purported to have their ear to the ground in the lead-up to the 2008 election had turned out to be tone-deaf.

Right from the start, Moore’s mission had a strong Quebec component. He was mandated to repair some bridges or, failing that, to at least keep his government off that lethal third rail. The results are mixed at best but that is not for lack of trying.

As an anglophone minister from Western Canada in one of the most important portfolios to Quebec, the bilingual Moore could easily have become a poster boy for all that so many Quebecers feel is wrong with the Harper government. (In the last Léger Marketing poll, only one in 10 supported the Conservatives.)

Instead, not since Sheila Copps has a non-Quebec federal minister risen to such a profile in the province.

Like Moore, Copps, who served at heritage in the post-referendum era, operated in a polarized Quebec environment. Unlike him though, she was surrounded by a contingent of strong Quebec colleagues —including Paul Martin, Pierre Pettigrew, Stéphane Dion, Lucienne Robillard and Denis Coderre.

It turns out that Copps and Moore have something more in common than a difficult assignment. Their style may be different but they are both more fearless than average.

Some of that fearlessness was in evidence on Sunday night when Moore appeared on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle. Even Copps would have been wary of showing up on the prime-time talk-show on the very week when Radio-Canada was putting program names and journalistic faces to the cuts of the federal budget.

The last time a high-profile Harperite had gone on the show hailed back to Moore’s first visit three years ago.

With no sympathizers among the other guests or in the live audience, Moore probably has had more fun visiting his dentist. But in the end, he did score points for being there and he did convince a grudging audience that he was a genuine friend of the cultural community.

That being said, there is only so much a lone minister from British Columbia can do to keep the current flowing between Quebec and Ottawa.

At this time last year, the orange surge that wiped the Bloc Québécois from the Quebec map was about to crest. The thinking at the time was that in the absence of a sovereignist contingent to fan the Quebec-Canada flames, the climate would improve.

Almost 12 months to the day since that watershed moment, Moore will have to report to the prime minister that the estrangement of Quebecers from his government is instead fast reaching a dangerous climax. He may want to also brief his timorous Quebec colleagues.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.